1. The Persians
• 550 B.C.E., Cyrus the Great
• Zoroastrianism
– Good vs. evil
– Last judgment
• Challenged the Greeks – invasions by
Achaemenid Empire (Xerxes)
• Conquered by Alexander the Great

2. The Persian Empire
in Its Main Stages

3. Classical Greece
• Classical Greece
– City-states (polis)
– Mountainous terrain = rivalries
 Variety of governments
• Literature
– Iliad, Odyssey - Basis for Hellenic (Greek) culture
• Architecture
– Columns
• Arts
– Sculpture (ideal form)

4. The Greek World

5. The City-State as a Political Unit
• Greece formed into many city-states - polis
• Each polis deeply united
– Public religion
– Political participation
– Cultural events, e.g. theatre
• Social hierarchy
– Aristocrats (wealthy land-owners) at the top
– Captures slaves at the bottom

6. The Rise of Democracy in Athens
• Solon & Pericles - Athenian statesmen
• Popular assembly
– Oversight of most of the government
• Offices filled by lot
• Who was excluded?
– Women
– Slaves
– Foreigners and their children

7. Greek Unity
• Colonization
– Spread of Greek culture (Hellenism)
throughout Mediterranean
– Expansion of trade
• Religious games
– Truces – war against Persia (Delian League)
– Olympics
– Oracle at Delphi

8. Fragmentation
• Conflict between cities
– Athens versus Sparta (military oligarchy)
 Political contrasts
 Competing alliances
 Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.E.
• Athenian surrender, 404 B.C.E.

9. Macedonian Conquest
• Macedon (north) compared to southern
Greece
– Monarchy v. city-state
– Plains v. mountains
– Linguistic differences
• Philip II of Macedon (359-336 B.C.E. )
– By 338 B.C.E., Greece conquered

10. Alexander the Great
• Conquests, 334-331 B.C.E.
– Into India, Egypt
– Founded:
 Alexandria – ancient city
 New and important trade routes, libraries
• Death, 323 B.C.E.
• Division of successor states by generals
– Egypt: Ptolemies
– Persia: Seleucids

11. Alexander’s Empire and the
Hellenistic World, c. 323 B.C.E.

12. Creativity in Greek and
Hellenistic Culture
• Religion, Philosophy, and Science
– Religion
 Pantheon of gods with human traits
– Philosophy
 Socrates - Skepticism
 Plato
– Stoics - Moral fortitude

13. Creativity in Greek and
Hellenistic Culture
• Religion, Philosophy, and Science
– Science
 Pythagoras
 Euclid
 Archimedes
• Drama
– Public, religious, typified by conflict
– Sophocles - Tragedy
– Aristophanes - Comedy

14. Literature and the Visual Arts
• Drama
– Oral epic
 Homer
– History
 Herodotus – mix of myth and history
 Thucydides – first true historian
• Human achievement important
• Temples

15. Patterns of Greek and Hellenistic
Society
• Men, Women, and Social Divisions
– Patriarchal
– Women – legal/cultural disadvantages
– Athens – very patriarchal
– Sparta – more rights for women